1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method and apparatus to control a cooling fan to cool a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to efficiently control a cooling fan to cool a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus in which an image is formed by heating and pressing toner using a heat source of the fusing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, an image is formed by heating and pressing toner using a heat source of a fusing unit, and high temperature heat is used for improving the fixation of the toner. The fusing unit that generates high temperature heat for the fixation of the toner is cooled using a cooling fan, and the high temperature heat generated from the fusing unit is dissipated to the outside of the image forming apparatus, so as to prevent possible damage to other parts in the image forming apparatus. Thus, a method of efficiently controlling a cooling fan to prevent possible damage to other parts in the image forming apparatus and reduce noise generated due to the driving of the cooling fan is needed.
FIG. 1 is a timing diagram illustrating a conventional method of controlling a cooling fan to cool a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, in the conventional method of controlling a cooling fan for cooling a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus, the cooling fan is controlled such that the cooling fan is driven at a time point A when heat is supplied to the fusing unit and stopped at a time point B when the supply of heat to the fusing unit is discontinued. That is, according to the conventional method, the driving of the cooling fan is controlled such that the time point for driving the cooling fan is synchronized with the time point for supplying heat to the fusing unit.
However, the temperature of the fusing unit does not reach a high temperature as soon as heat is supplied to the fusing unit and does not instantly return to room temperature as soon as the supply of heat to the fusing unit is discontinued. Thus, in the conventional method, the cooling fan is driven when unnecessary and so is not efficiently driven. Additionally, unnecessary noise is generated and energy is wasted. Therefore, to address this problem, a method of efficiently controlling the driving of the cooling fan according to the actual temperature of the fusing unit is needed.